It seems to me that the
political philosopher Hannah Arendt nailed it when she wrote: “Moreover, if
we inquire historically into the causes likely to transform engagés into
enragés, it is not injustice that ranks first, but hypocrisy.”

Yes, hypocrisy
as the principal cause of violence, transforming the “engaged” into the
“enraged.” Arendt goes on to explain that, “Only where there is reason to
suspect that conditions could be changed and are not does rage arise.”

Are we not
surrounded and bombarded by hypocrisy every single minute in America? Are we
not the most violent -- ragefully violent -- society on the face of the
planet? Do we not wonder why the richest, most powerful nation on earth does
nothing to change conditions of poverty, starvation, and environmental
despoliation?

Is it not
enraging to hear the talking heads -- the politicians and their media --
speak daily of bringing “democracy” to Iraq while they brutally decimate the
entire city of Fallujah and turn 100,000 human beings into “collateral
damage” over the course of the invasion and subsequent occupation?

Is it not
enraging to witness the new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, express
dismay over the “impugning of her credibility” in the face of being caught
in lie after lie regarding the justifications for invading Iraq?

Is it not
enraging to have to listen to such phrases as “no child left behind,”
“healthy forests legislation,” or “clean skies act,” while all the while
education is being viciously de-funded, the peoples’ forests are being sold
off to timber companies, and prior restrictions on air pollution are being
rescinded?

Former Black
Panther, H. Rap Brown, once remarked, “violence is as American as cherry
pie.” If Hannah Arendt is correct, as I believe she is, then hypocrisy,
therefore, forms the taproot of America’s founding.

Few people in
America realize that the much-celebrated Liberty Bell cracked on the very
first strike of its clapper. Why? Poor craftsmanship?

I would contend
that the Liberty Bell cracked because the liberty it was meant to proclaim
“left out” Native Americans, African slaves, women, and indentured servants.
In other words, the Liberty Bell cracked because it could not contain the
hypocrisy that was being required of it.

Why is this so
important in our current circumstances, where the dogs of American empire
have been unleashed upon the world?

The
understanding as to the true nature of American democracy, as conceived and
executed by the Founding Fathers, is vital if we who ache for freedom and
justice for the people of the world, who ache for a loving relationship to
our environment, are to imagine a way through these dark times. American
democracy was founded solely on the premise of freedom for individual
landowners and businessmen to profitably exploit human labor and natural
resources without any restrictions from the British monarchy.

This was
freedom for a very specific class of people only.

Hypocrisy was
embedded in their vision of America, as noble proclamations of “freedom from
tyranny” were cynically used to mobilize the poor and the small farmers in
rebellion against colonial Britain. Read any of the books -- A People’s
History of the United States; A People’s History of the American
Revolution: Labor’s Untold Story; Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee;
Before the Mayflower, etc. -- and it becomes readily apparent that
every freedom that exists today was fought for and extracted from the very
same ruling class that today aspires to global empire, the words of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence notwithstanding.

As progressives
and social visionaries seek appropriate responses to this brutal engine
churning towards a global Pax Americana, we cannot restrict our imaginations
only to forms of democracy as envisioned by America’s founders or embodied
in wistful longing for another New Deal. To do so would be to acquiesce to
the continuation and reinforcement of the rage-inducing hypocrisies that
inspire violence both within and towards America.

If we are to
ever move beyond the violence that permeates America, and with which America
is attempting to recreate the world in its own image, then we must take a
long, hard look at the sticky web of hypocrisy that holds this country in
thrall.

This is where the first blow
for true freedom and justice must be struck.